Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Pissed

The other day, on our weekly constitutional around the trails and paths of Northwood, R. and I argued about the issue of Obama's speech to school children. Schools around the country were invited to play the speech for children, as Obama urged them to stay in school. As a black man in a powerful position, he was in a position that no president has ever been in before to urge this, and it might just make a difference. But irresponsible forces of the opposition decided to use lies and fear to stand in his way just because they could. I was fuming about that. Of course R., as a person who grew up in a small, southern, and very Republican town and household, reasonably pointed out to me that Obama is nothing if not a politician, and even if he never said a word about his policies, he would represent them just the same, so it made sense for the opposition to object to this. But the point was, they DIDN't object to this, but to some imagined boogie-man red scare--he would transform their children into socialists!! That's what those parents said they were told and what they feared. Aren't we all tired of all these lies? Of people believing them? In a week when my class showed itself unable to distinguish an "objective" newspaper article from an editorial, I was disgusted and losing hope for our country. But interestingly, Public TV news pointed out that when the shoe was on the other foot, years ago, when Daddy Bush did something similar, the Dems objected. Of course, they didn't lie to the public about it either. But they did object. Can't we send all these liars back to school to study logic and reinstitute some sort of order and civility into this discussion?

About Me

It feels odd to tell people, when they ask you what you do, that you are a poet. It is of course not a proper profession, if by "proper" one means a job that brings in money.
It is most certainly an occupation though. Reading, writing, going to poetry events make up a sizable percentage of my life.